Startup Weekend: How to Take a Company From Concept to Creation in 54 Hours (5 page)

The first of these individuals was Shane Reiser, who wanted to organize a Startup Weekend in Des Moines, Iowa. That was an interesting experiment for Startup Weekend. In cities like San Francisco or Seattle, you know you have a built-in group of young, dynamic entrepreneurs, people who are used to the idea of startups. But how would this work in a mid-sized town in Middle America?
Would
it work? We had our doubts.

But Shane knew better. He had moved to Des Moines in 2009, and was going to some Tweetups (meetups for people on Twitter). He always saw a handful of budding entrepreneurs in the corner at these events, talking to each other about their ideas. But Shane was frustrated. Why weren't they
doing
anything—like taking the lead and actually starting companies? They had plenty of cool ideas but they were fearful. They didn't know how to get started, and they didn't know the right people. When Shane read about Startup Weekend, he sensed it would be a great motivator for the sidelined entrepreneurs.

Startup Weekend has hosted events in over 200 cities in more than 60 countries—none of which would have been possible unless we, the organization's leaders, trusted people on the ground to run these events well. We allow almost anyone to be a local organizer. Yes, we have an application process; but all we really want to see is that applicants truly care about the community, and that there is no other reason behind their desire to host an event.

Generally, it's a good indicator if someone is reaching out to you. It's almost like when you're dating someone who tells you, “I like you.” It doesn't mean that you'll be the perfect match in the end, but you might at least want to consider that this person has something to offer. People who claim to want to host a Startup Weekend have heard about us, and tell us that they want to subscribe to our philosophy. So that's an automatic point in their favor.

Shane was a little surprised by our attitude. As he says, “Marc, Clint, and Franck didn't make me videotape myself. They didn't make me take a test or anything. They just asked me what I needed to know and then they sent me to New York.”

Jon Rossi, who now leads Startup Weekend Denver, was also taken aback by the trust we placed in him. He marvels about the fact that he was able to represent our organization at an event in Denver without having ever met any member of our staff. The feeling of empowerment was particularly important to him. “With all the distrust in the world today, I was shocked that I didn't have to jump over hurdles, fill out lengthy forms, give a sample of my DNA, sign a Truth-in-Lending Act document, or take a polygraph in front of retired KGB officer.” Jon has also embraced our attitude in his dealings with Startup Weekend activities—as well as the rest of his work life. “Ever since attending my first Startup Weekend in 2010, I have taken the philosophy of ‘trust first, doubt later and only if given cause’ and tried to implement it with the people I do work with on a daily basis.”

Make no mistake—we have certainly had organizers who have botched things up, and about whom we've received some negative feedback. But business, especially startup business, is about taking risks. If we don't take a chance on people, the likelihood is that we'll never get anything off the ground in a lot of cities where we currently operate.

Startup Weekend has an internal wiki with documents full of advice to help guide new organizers through the process. We give them this, and then we say, “Run with it.” We want to empower them to be their own evangelists in the community for Startup Weekend, and we don't want to get in the way of their doing what is best for their community. If we decide to go ahead with a new volunteer, we'll give them all of our materials, an e-mail address at Startup Weekend, and have our designers put together a logo to help them advertise their event.

How We Empower People to Get the Most Out of Startup Weekend

There is a very low barrier to entering a Startup Weekend as a participant. The cost for a weekend is under $100, and that includes food and all the coffee you can drink. Sure, you might get a few people who come for the muffins; but they quickly realize there are easier ways to get a free breakfast. We recognize that there are people in all different fields who may want to participate, and people from all walks of life who have ideas. And we don't want to discourage anyone from coming. We have to take a leap of faith. And we have to encourage others to take a leap of faith as well. One woman named Carmen e-mailed Shane about one of the first events he was hosting. Though she thought the event sounded cool, she worried that her skills wouldn't be very valuable to the other participants. She had done some script writing for children's television shows and couldn't see how that was going to fit in with a startup business. She knew she was a good writer and a creative thinker, but she had never thought of herself as an entrepreneur before.

Shane could tell that Carmen wasn't very confident, so he wrote her back encouraging her to come anyway: “Clearly, you're interested in entrepreneurship and you reached out to me for a reason. I guarantee your skills will be valuable.”

Shane didn't see Carmen much over the weekend. She did pitch an idea Friday night, but it didn't get enough interest to get off the ground. However, when Sunday rolled around, Shane saw Carmen on stage giving the presentation for her team. Shane said he was pretty surprised: One of the things she had said in her e-mail was that she was a bad public speaker and was embarrassed to get on stage in front of people. But according to Shane, “She rocked it. She got up on stage, and you could tell she was super excited to be on this team with these people, [with whom] she had developed [some solid] relationships.”

After the event, Carmen came up to Shane and hugged him with tears in her eyes. She told him Startup Weekend had been “a life-changing experience,” and said, “I don't know if this team is going continue, but whether it does or not, I'm definitely interested in entrepreneurship now. You've opened my eyes to this world of technology and entrepreneurship, and I've met some amazing people.”

Carmen didn't have this life-changing experience because someone lectured her on the principles of entrepreneurship or told her how to start a company. While there are some formal presentations at Startup Weekend by entrepreneurs and business leaders who know something about entrepreneurship, attendance at these lectures is far from mandatory. We know that if people think their time is better spent working on their project than listening to an expert, then they should work on their projects. We recognize that people have sacrificed their free time to be at these events. They're not kids in school; they're grown-ups with full-time jobs and bills to pay. And learning at Startup Weekend happens because of the work that they do—not because they're sitting back and passively listening to others talk.

Why You Have to Have Trust to Be a Successful Entrepreneur

People come to Startup Weekends for different reasons. Some have a business idea already in mind, and they see Startup Weekend as a vehicle for making that idea succeed. However, this can be difficult at times. What if you assemble a team and the people on it like your idea, or a part of your idea, but envision it playing out in a different way? Part of being an active and valuable participant at Startup Weekend is making sure that you trust your partners and that you empower them to make decisions about your idea.

The only teams that will be really successful are those who discuss an idea at an early enough stage. The idea should be sufficiently undeveloped, and have a founder who hasn't yet decided exactly how it should be executed. The earlier that people are willing to get input, the more likely they are to have a successful venture.

For many people, though, Startup Weekend's value lies much more in the relationships that they form at our events than in the business ideas themselves. People will leverage those relationships after Startup Weekend has ended in order to form new companies and gain new contacts in the business world.

Researchers Friederike Welter and David Smallbone write in an
Entrepreneur
article that while the role of trust in entrepreneurship is not fully understood yet, one beneficial effect may be that “Not all business relationships need to be regulated via contracts, thus allowing [the entrepreneur] to reduce transaction costs.” Trust, in other words, can simplify matters and make business work more smoothly. We have certainly found that to be the case.

However, we don't establish trust with others in a vacuum; and researchers have found that trust is not simply bilateral. It also depends on the norms and rules of the environment that surround the people who are forming a relationship. And this is even
more
important for entrepreneurs than it is for established businesses. As Welter and Smallbone explain, “Entrepreneurs are more likely to find themselves in a bootstrapping situation where they have to develop an identity as a trustworthy person.” In other words, trust is so important at Startup Weekend because Startup Weekend is a
community
. And even people who are in the first hour of their first weekend of participation become integrated in that community.

In some places, of course, this culture of trust comes a bit more slowly. As one Startup Weekend facilitator told us, “In Singapore, sharing one's most inner thoughts has always been an issue, especially with a room full of strangers.” Still, though, he says that the environment Startup Weekend creates can encourage even the most reticent types to express themselves. “Once [participants begin to share] . . . ideas and thoughts on a trusted stage, the best ideas will arise with passionate supporters and more projects will be taken forward to actual launch.”

One of Startup Weekend's greatest advantages is that it is local. Therefore, there's a good chance that those attending may have seen, worked with, or know someone who knows the other people there. This breaks down the barriers a bit. It is easy to imagine how another organization might just decide that everyone should fly to San Francisco for the weekend, thinking that just being near Silicon Valley will get everyone in the right mood. However, from our perspective, that would defeat the purpose. We want Startup Weekend to put down roots in each community, to help local people build locally, and perhaps even solve community problems.

Some might assume that nowadays, in this digital information/social networking age, people no longer need to sit next to those with whom they're working. After all, can't everyone just work from home and communicate online? Isn't it just easier—and more comfortable—to stay in your pajamas anyway? Well, you can take that approach; however, many entrepreneurs find it doesn't work as well as they'd like. This is why people from different startups have begun using shared workspaces, and going to places like coffee shops. As it turns out, that face-to-face contact is crucial not only to developing great ideas but for building trust as well.

While we always encourage people to trust others they meet at Startup Weekend from the get-go, we also know that the trust can't remain blind for long. Danielle Morrill, a veteran participant of Startup Weekends and startup companies, says that she loves being able to reach out to other Startup Weekend alums in different parts of the country and around the world. She'll send out an e-mail: “I'm coming to Chicago and I'd really like to meet some developers and entrepreneurs in your community. Can you connect me?”